LlamaKISS

This is a replacement for the media streaming software known as PC-Link, by Linksys, former KISS Technology. It’s used to send videos, music and pictures from a Windows computer to KISS digital video recorders:

• KISS DP-500
• KISS DP-508
• KISS DP-558 (I own this one myself)
• KISS DP-600
• KISS DP-1500
• KISS DP-1504
• KISS DP-1600
  

So why this replacement? Because the original PC-Link software didn’t work properly after I installed Windows Vista x64. When I tried to play videos, the pre-buffering paused resulting in out-of-sync sound. Very annoying, and rendering my DP-558 somewhat useless.

So why not use any of the other replacements? The only ones I’ve found are either made in Java (JLink, Kiss Now, Open DP-500), Perl (kissntell) or isn’t made for Windows and uses Cygwin (pd500serv, kissdx). LlamaKISS is a native Windows console application written in C++ using the WinSock API.

Does it work? With Windows Vista x64 and my DP-558 it works as intended. If you have Windows XP, 2000, or another player model and it don’t, please contact me. You can help me debug by un-commenting the two [debug] settings in the LlamaKISS.ini, do some test and e-mail me the files created.

So what does it cost? Nothing, it’s free software.

Features

• Streaming:
  • Real-time browsing of available media files. No need to add every file/directory like PC-Link.
  • Map multiple paths for each type of media. Virtual drives (DaemonTools), network shares, USB-sticks, floppy drives :).
• Security:
  • Allow/deny connections by IP address.
  • Allow/deny media streaming by PlayerID.
  • Filter media files by file-extension.
• Implementation:
  • Very low memory and CPU usage, using overlapped IO (IoCompletionPort) with worker threads and system cache manager calls (TransmitFile).

Installation

Download and un-zip the archive to wherever you want, preferably your Program Files directory. Edit the LlamaKISS.ini with Notepad, or alike, and add variables in the VIDEO, AUDIO and PICTURE sections to where your media is located. Run LlamaKISS.exe, use Ctrl-C to exit.

If you’re using a firewall make sure LlamaKISS.exe can accept incomming TCP connections and send/receive UPD packets on port 8000.

Changelog

• 2008-07-29 v1.0.10: Fixed a ACTION command issue, might fix issues with DP-1500.
  
• 2008-05-31 v1.0.9: Fixed a LIST command issue where some players models make the directory path locally and don’t use the absolute path sent.
• 2008-05-30 v1.0.8: Fixed a GET command parse issue where some player models (DP-600) don’t send PlayerID. This might fix a few issues where LlamaKISS refused to play media files.
  
• 2008-04-03 v1.0.7: Multiple locations for each media type. Please replace your existing LlamaKISS.ini.
• 2008-03-01 v1.0.6: Additional settings to help with debugging. The release build is now compiled with Debugging Information so MiniDump’s can be used.
• 2008-03-01 v1.0.5: Minor fix.
• 2008-02-28 v1.0.4: New security setting to filter media by file extension. Re-write of the command parser, hopefully fixing issue where some only saw directories.
• 2007-12-31 v1.0.3: To get out of DLL-hell I’ve statically linked the CRT, not as easy as it sounds due to Visual Studio wierdness. File size increased due to that. I now know it should work on Windows XP. I’ve tested.
• 2007-12-20 v1.0.2: Changed to using GetCurrentThreadId instead of GetThreadId, which hopfully fixes Windows 2000 and XP issue.
• 2007-12-07 v1.0.1: Changed from SOCKADDR to SOCKADDR_STORAGE structures, hopefully fixing the bug where getpeername could fail.
• 2007-11-20 v1.0.0: Initial public release.

Known Issues

• Some players (DP-1600?) can only see the directory structure not the media files. This might be that some players send diffrent command than my DP-558 thus LlamaKISS interpret them wrong.
• Some players (DP-558?) hang, requiring a reboot, after playing some movie files. I’ve noticed this a few times myself, cause yet unknown.
• Distorted picture the first second when playing a VOB or TS. Not much can be done about this I think, it’s a player issue.
• File not found: VIDEO\DIVX VIDEO\(movie name).avi. This might be caused by symbolic links (shortcuts), LlamaKISS does not follow ’em.

Most of there can probably be fixed quite easily with a little help from you. Enable CommandDumpFile=LlamaKISS.log in the [debug] section of the LlamaKISS.ini, try playing a movie then e-mail me the log-file created. The file contains all the commands sent from your player to the server. With it I can see if the commands differ from what my DP-558 sends and then change the interpretation in LlamaKISS accordingly. If any of you have C/C++ experience and would like to help out, I’ll happly publish/open source the code.

To do

1. Testing with more models of KISS hardware. I would appreciate your feedback.
2. Maybe make it a Windows Service to run in the background.
   
3. Make a true Windows application with a nice GUI. For the configuration anyway, if the rest becomes a Windows Service.
4. Support disc image (.iso) playback. This really isn’t that important any longer since you can just map one of your VIDEO location to a virtual drive (DaemonTools) and play the VOB or TS files directly.
5. Support FLAC playback. I’ve tried to implement this and concluded that it can’t be done without transcoding to MP3 or OGG. My DP-558 can’t play PCM samples, neither in WAV nor ASF container.
6. Maybe integrate a KML server, if someone find it usefull.
7. Any requests?

Download

• Windows binary: LlamaKISS.zip (106 K)
• Source: Not publicly available yet. On request, maybe.

Author

Henrik Lindqvist <henrik.lindqvist@llamalab.com>

Comments

1. Gread Job, Working really well
   Just make it service Please!! interface - dosen't really mater, but service is really inportant..
   
   Thanks for product!!
   25. by Vanger on

   Thursday, 28 August 2008 at 00:27 GMT
2. Has to be vr-558 instead of vr-588 (silly me)
   
   
   Regards
   
   Maverick
   24. by maverick1976 on

   Friday, 15 August 2008 at 08:15 GMT
3. Hello,
   
   Kiss vr-588 (300GB) and Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit.
   Videos and music are on an external disk connected via USB to the pc.
   
   And works great... thank you
   
   Keep up the good work
   
   Regards
   
   Maverick
   23. by maverick1976 on

   Friday, 15 August 2008 at 08:09 GMT
4. New version available; v1.0.10

   Fixed an issue with DP-1500 where audio streaming would fail to start. Thanks Ivars!

   22. by Henrik Lindqvist on

   Tuesday, 29 July 2008 at 19:28 GMT
5. Works superbly on my DP-600!! Thanks! :o)
   
   There's a very minor issue I've noticed (using XP). The program crashes, bringing up the usual Windows "send error message" dialogue sometimes when using CTRL-C to exit it.
   21. by Mark on

   Thursday, 10 July 2008 at 14:39 GMT
6. New version available; v1.0.9

   Small fix with huge implications, that seems to solve the directory and file not found issues introduce in version 1.0.7. Thanks again to Fred.!

   20. by Henrik Lindqvist on

   Saturday, 31 May 2008 at 15:59 GMT
7. New version available; v1.0.8
   

   Fixed issue where media files wouldn’t play on some DP-600. Thanks Fred. for you help!

   19. by Henrik Lindqvist on

   Friday, 30 May 2008 at 20:22 GMT
8. Hi,
   It doesn't work for me ...
   my config consists in Vista Ultimate SP1 x64 + Gb network + DP600 (firmware KNAS) + HD TV.
   Kiss sees the server, the directories and files but when i try to read those files i get an "unknown Codec" error message on TV.
   Same files shared via PCLink are OKs.
   Regards.
   Fred.
   18. by Fred on

   Thursday, 29 May 2008 at 08:50 GMT
9. Kiss 1600 Player
   Vista 32 Bit
   
   First of all, nice work :)
   
   My player can find the directory, but can't seem to find any files.
   
   Error message:
   Worker 3468: class RuntimeException[FindFirstFle]#3: The system cannot find the path specified.
   
   17. by Shwing on

   Sunday, 11 May 2008 at 19:49 GMT
10. If you have problems using LlamaKISS, please e-mail me instead, I’ll gladly help you.
    16. by Henrik Lindqvist on

    Thursday, 10 April 2008 at 16:15 GMT
11. Cant get it to work have altered ini file to correct path and the server appears in the KISS menu but the list of movies is not displayed any thoughts please anyone??
    15. by cssmrsmith on

    Tuesday, 08 April 2008 at 18:52 GMT
12. Hello Henrik,
    the programme works nicely on my VR558. The option to play DVDs from the computer does not work properly (the picture is distorted), but there does seem to be some contact to the computer's drive.
    Thank you very much for a very good programme (I have been using EZLinkNG) that seems to work seemlessly with Windows XP.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Karsten
    14. by Karstenp on

    Tuesday, 08 April 2008 at 17:21 GMT
13. Hello Henrik,
    
    Thank you for this program, I'm looking for this program for a year, same problems as everyone with Kiss link & Vista. I installed the LlamaKISS.exe and programmed the LlamaKISS.ini, so I can find my divx video's on my pc. Problem is that when I select one to watch, the Kiss DP1500 sais: "File not found! Please verify the path to the file, Current path is: VIDEO\DIVX VIDEO\(movie name).avi.
    
    Do you know what is wrong?
    
    Best regards
    
    Frank from Holland
    
    13. by Frank on

    Sunday, 06 April 2008 at 08:29 GMT
14. Hello Henrik,
    Thank you for this new release !
    
    The problem I was talking about in the message #3 of your page is still here : each time I want to watch a video via LlamaKISS, I MUST reboot my Kiss DP 558 (its not necessary to listen music). I can watch several videos in a row. But when I stop LlamaKISS and run it again, a reboot is necessary.
    Do you have an idea how I can solve it ?
    Thanks for your help !
    
    12. by Marc on

    Thursday, 03 April 2008 at 04:49 GMT
15. New version available; v1.0.7
    

    Now allowing multiple locations for each media type.

    11. by Henrik Lindqvist on

    Wednesday, 02 April 2008 at 23:54 GMT
16. Hi.
    
    A friend of mine wrote a very similar program back in 2004
    It's very basic, but worked very well for it's intended model (dp-500)
    
    Quoted from his website.:
    
    A short list of features (it really does not have many):
    
    * Installs and runs as a service on the Windows NT and XP platforms (dp500lnk.exe -i)
    * Easy to remove (dp500lnk.exe -r)
    * Just edit the .ini file and it will mount your library and provide a LIVE view (no caching)
    * Generates a list of "Recently Played" files (both Audio and Video)
    * Preserves the lists (over reboot/shutdown)
    * This feature can be enabled and disabled in the .ini file
    * You can cap the maximum number of items in the list
    * Can run as a console application, it really must (dp500lnk.exe -c)
    * Requires a very modest footprint on your harddrive (less than 400K)
    * Very conservative on memory usage (approx. 3 MB)
    * Very low impact on your processor (super light)
    * Update [July 10 2004]: Represents Winamp (.m3u) playlists as a
    
    
    As with llamaKISS my friend didn't provide sources for his program
    but I think you should write him about it.
    
    At writing moment the link for the binary on his site is broken.
    I've written him about fixing that.
    
    http://www.joergensen.net/index.php?section=39
    
    I'm unsure if it will even work with todays players, but I thought it was
    worth a comment being so similar to LlamaKISS.
    
    Good luck, I hole he used C++ and will share his install as service, and
    playlist handler.
    
    /Nick
    
    10. by Nick on

    Wednesday, 02 April 2008 at 08:51 GMT
17. Thanks for your work, its working great on WXPSP2 and the KISS VR558, would be nice if ithey could adress more dir of the mediafiles.
    Good work
    9. by pctrasher on

    Saturday, 29 March 2008 at 09:01 GMT
18. I have installed the program and my Kiss displays all my movies in the specified directory but when I want to play a movie the Kiss does not do anything:(
    8. by schooltje on

    Friday, 28 March 2008 at 06:54 GMT
19. I tried it out with my KISS DP-600 and it just worked. Vista Ultimate 64-Bit. Thanks and I'm looking forward to new features :-)
    7. by Soren on

    Wednesday, 26 March 2008 at 19:04 GMT
20. No funciona con vista ultimate 32bits da errores constantes!!
    6. by Lincoln78 on

    Monday, 17 March 2008 at 15:03 GMT
21. I just installed but I didn't use it yet, one of the missing features for the kiss media center sofware is to rename/delete files from kiss, is it possible to add this feature into LlamaKISS?
    
    Ciao
    Marocco
    5. by Marocco on

    Thursday, 13 March 2008 at 09:19 GMT
22. Err...
    I did not reboot my DP 558 - I had lost this reflex ;-)
    And now : it works !
    Great ! Thank you very much
    4. by Marc on

    Wednesday, 12 March 2008 at 20:08 GMT
23. Hello,
    I was looking for a such tool since I've installed Windows Vista on my PC in january 2007 ! I was no more able to read video files on my Kiss DP 558
    :-(
    That's why I was very happy to find your LlamKiss.
    I have tested it tonight but unfortunately it seems not work for me :
    - I see the PC directory tree from kiss
    - I load a video and the counter climbs to 100%
    - and...nothing more
    
    I've tried many video files and I(ve got the same results.
    Could you help me please ?
    Best regards !
    Marc
    3. by Marc on

    Wednesday, 12 March 2008 at 20:01 GMT
24. Muy amables
    2. by lincoln78 on

    Friday, 07 March 2008 at 16:35 GMT
25. hello
    1. by johnart on

    Wednesday, 05 March 2008 at 01:19 GMT

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